Real Basketball? (Warriors 117, Sixers 125)

The Warriors demonstrated once again Sunday afternoon against the Sixers that they have little trouble hitting difficult shots at key moments. It’s avoiding giving their opponents easy ones in the same situations where they stumble. The 117-125 loss felt like far too many before it, with the Warriors pouring it on offensively to stay in the game — then ultimately losing it due to poor execution, lack of intensity and the basic absence of fundamental instincts. If you don’t run back on defense in overtime to cut off lay-ups, you lose basketball games. You’d hope the Warriors would be beyond those types of mistakes 62 games into this season. But they’re not.

Sunday’s game goes in the (very full) category of “close, but not enough.” The Sixers are coming together as a team and playing quality basketball. The Warriors played well enough through 48 minutes to stick with them. But there’s only so much comfort to take from that high-level view. The mistakes that ultimately killed the Warriors’ chances are the same ones they’ve been making all season. Giving up easy baskets, getting beaten on the boards in key late-game moments, lacking any structured offense against lock-down defense other than the give-it-to-Ellis-and-get-out-of-the-way special — so long as these problems are losing games for the Warriors, it’s hard to argue they’re any closer to being a legitimate playoff basketball team than they were at the start of the season.

The individual performances aren’t much more encouraging than the final score.

Monta Ellis hit two incredibly clutch late-game threes to force overtime, but the heroics couldn’t quite cover up his struggles before and after the buckets. The Sixers deployed what is becoming the standard play for frustrating Ellis offensively — stick a larger, athletic defender on him, force him out of the middle when he drives and make him beat you from long range. On a night when Ellis’ shot was mostly off (11-27), the strategy worked well. The night wasn’t any better for Ellis in other areas of the game. He turned the ball over too much (6 times), had his usual share of blown defensive assignments and had nothing left for overtime (0-2, no rebounds, no assists, 1 turnover).

The Warriors can usually recover from a rough night by Ellis when Curry, Lee and Wright are all hot. The supporting trio put up decent lines Sunday, but the numbers mean far less when contextualized in the flow of the game. With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, the trio combined for 0 points and 4 rebounds. The lack of production is largely attributable to Ellis taking over in the fourth quarter, but says something about how he took over. None of Ellis’ 7 made shots came off an assist (the two assists in the quarter, by Acie Law, both fed Reggie Williams). The lack of defensive rebounding allowed the Sixers to keep the Warriors from surging ahead (Evan Turner snagged 3 offensive boards in 9 key fourth quarter minutes). When the Warriors needed someone else other than Ellis to score in overtime, the rest of the team seemed completely out of the flow of the game. Basketball isn’t a one-man game, no matter how dominant that one man can be for stretches. The Warriors are still struggling to find ways to get the other 14 players on their roster consistently involved in the game when it matters most.

Keith Smart made the decision in the fourth quarter to stick with Acie Law at point guard over Curry and David Lee/Vladimir Radmanovic at center over Udoh. It was the type of line-up you see coaches riding when it manages a big surge or comeback. The difference here was that all it had done was barely hold onto the lead. The usual explanations for the rotation don’t pan out. You can fault Curry for his defense, but then why play Reggie Williams — who is even worse defensively — for all but 90 seconds of the quarter? Curry’s third-quarter run was also relatively mistake and turnover free. Udoh may have been foul-prone early in the game, but I’d rather have 2 good minutes of defense before he fouls out than watch Lee or Radmanovic let Sixers stroll to the basket repeatedly. Smart looked like he simply settled on four guys who were willing to get out of Ellis’ way. That’s a decent tactic for a play or two in crunch time, but not as a one-note strategy for the entire quarter.

Those desperate for any sort of silver lining to this game can find it in the second quarter play of Al Thornton and Lou Amundson. If the Warriors aren’t going to develop any structured offense beyond clearing a side and letting a player iso his defender, then they might as well just hand things over to players like Al Thornton. Since it’s his instinct whenever he touches the ball to attack the basket, he’s likely going to fill the need for a scorer off the bench and doesn’t need (or want) structure. There likely will be questions about his defense and decision-making soon enough, but he’s a low risk option that fills a need. Likewise, if you’re going to have an unstructured offensive attack, you need someone like Lou Amundson to clean up the garbage. He did a great job of that in his extended second quarter run, working the offensive glass and making himself available in the post on busted plays. He’s not a guy you feed by design in a post-up set, but he’s at his best when there’s a scrum under the basket following a missed shot.

Ultimately, on a weekend when Joe Lacob had a Sarah Palin moment — questioning whether criticism is coming from “real” fans, like “real” America — Warriors fans (“real” or otherwise) should also ask a few reality-based questions of their own. When will this team start playing “real” basketball, and when will someone be held accountable for the fact that they’ve not?

Adam Lauridsen

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Half time and up by 1. Thornton, Curry, and Radman bring us back from a 12-pt deficit.

Frank…you promised us that if Udoh started we wouldn’t have these 1st quarter problems. But Ekpe had 0 pt and 0 rbs in first 9 mins. This is as bad as AB. We’re screwed. In 6 mins. Amundson had more points and rebounds than AB and EU had in a combined 19 mins. We’re screwed when Lou is our best 5.

Start Lee at C, Adrien at PF, Thornton at SF, Wright at SG, and Curry at PG. Monta and RW can come off the bench for instant offense. AB, Lou, EU, and Radman spell the bigs.

Edie Panias

Finally got home to listen to this. I like Maroon 5 and i love Christina. I was worried if i wouldn’t like the song though, but i do I can see what you mean about Christina’s part, it is a very small part. I would of still liked the song if she wasn’t in it, but she makes me like it more.